The past year has taught us important lessons about the consequences of the harm humans are inflicting on the natural world. We’re confronting a global biodiversity crisis, losing species and natural places at an unprecedented rate. We’ve also experienced the repercussions of nature’s decline through COVID-19, whose jump from animals to humans may be linked to habitat destruction. And yet the international community failed to achieve a single Aichi Biodiversity Target to curb environmental destruction by 2020. To combat the biodiversity crisis, we need to fundamentally shift our economy and society and make nature conservation the norm. We urgently need a better understanding of how to motivate people, overcome political barriers, influence economies and alter polities to benefit nature.